SO
MUCH TO SAY, SO LITTLE TIME Celebrating my summertime USMC hairdo, and knowing
that some of the scariest people in Washington DC are quietly cheering me on,
I’m going to enjoy my ebullient mood this sunny day and toss a big,
chocolaty-brown O’Henry bar into the ever-expanding
kiddy-pool of security policy and matching appropriations.
In
the matter of security, for lack of real objectives, well-intended
bureaucracies continue to torture the innocent and exhaust themselves,
relentlessly trying to wave chickens over their heads correctly.
So please, all of you, put down your chickens,
inhale slowly, and then listen.
Those of you “in ‘da
business” (as a friend likes to say it) will particularly enjoy this.
SOME HISTORY Potomac Airfield, that charming, well-manicured,
‘General Aviation’ airport, (run by that dashing, good looking fellow),
conveniently located between Andrews AFB,
(Talk about location, location, location!)
…On 911 suddenly became a matter of ‘National
Security’ (No kidding!) ...
…Thus compelled, became progenitor of the paradigm
that re-opened the airspace…
…(‘Ya wa’mme to prove it to ‘ya, huh?)…
…With the quiet support of the ‘F.O.D’…
(‘FOD’ being my friendly nickname for real
security agencies, aka ‘Forces Of Darkness’).
…Anticipating a nasty WAR with
…With all sorts of concerns about scary Weapons of Mass Destruction about…
…Did shoe-horn some air-combat IFF tricks of the
trade from the dark side (don’t ask)… into the existing Air Traffic system…
…In order to protect the freedom of the innocent…
(Not to be too lofty about it)
…And now, years later, many of you who are policy wonks and well-intended bureaucrats, need to know, before you all spin out of control, that under this most amazingly extreme setting…
Potomac Airfield…
… Has No fences,
…Has No badges,
…Has No cameras,
WHAT WHAT? HOW CAN THIS BE???
Curious eh?
Read on…
THE BIG QUESTION Assuming that a small aircraft could
be used to carry something really unpleasant aloft (No, I don’t mean a
lawyer), how can you stop a hostile pilot using an aircraft as small as an ultralight from successfully ‘attacking’ their target?
Please note that small aircraft DO NOT NEED ANY DAMN
AIRPORT, unless the pilot needs to pee before they takeoff. Following the thinking that an airport
somehow controls the movements of aircraft implies that to really stop
unauthorized ‘terrorist takeoffs’ you need to lock the door to the men’s
room! Then, to be politically correct,
you need to lock the women’s bathroom as well!
The ‘payload’ capability of small aircraft is absurdly
small, but let’s assume for a moment that the terrorist forgot to read the
WEIGHT AND BALANCE LIMITATIONS in their aircraft’s flight manual. They can be so silly.
ANSWER – PART ONE: The only
way to stop a hostile pilot in a small aircraft, able to takeoff from
anywhere anytime, from getting to target, requires two inter-dependent
elements:
1) MEANS TO DETECT all airborne movements coming from anywhere at anytime. ‘Restricted airspace’ stops nothing; it merely defines the area within which all aircraft movements can expect to get blasted to little bits. (Detection also requires all sorts of odd blinking things, which sit in big dark rooms far away, making sounds like ‘bleep’ and ‘ding.’).
2) ARMED DEFENDERS pre-positioned near the place
most likely to be attacked, providing the aforementioned blasting to little
bits of any unauthorized aircraft detected within the restricted area.
Only blasting unidentified intruders to little bits
stops anyone or anything at all.
Everything else is hogwash and play pretend.
Doing anything less accomplishes nothing
Expanding unrelated jurisdiction over the innocent can
have no effect on the airborne movement of anyone truly hostile, and is
therefore irrelevant. Such
measures undermine sustainable security by intruding counter-productive
intrusion and needless workload into the lives of the innocent.
…But I’m getting ahead of myself…
ANSWER - PART TWO: Okay, at this point we’ve defined totally ‘sterile’ airspace, where anything and everything moving gets blasted to little bits. Totally sterile airspace is unrealistic and un-sustainable politically, economically, and probably even constitutionally.
So what is a mother to do?…
Ya ‘gotta stop and think for a few minutes…
MINIMIZE ITS IMPACTS Restricted airspace has no
impact on the innocent if they don’t get blasted to little bits. Thus the way to minimize the impacts of
‘closed’ airspace, while retaining its effectiveness, is to make closed
airspace ‘open’ to those deemed not a threat.
TA DA! Take a bow!
1) WE PRE-SORT THOSE WHO NEED ACCESS TO THE CIRCLE OF DOOM We identify known-friends by pre-sorting pilots through a vetting process, the objective of which is to establish that the applicant is not a threat to national security.
Someone with outstanding library books is NOT a threat to
national security. A Boston driver’s
license, well, that’s another matter entirely.
Anyone can apply, even lawyers.
2) WE IDENTIFY ‘KNOWN FRIENDS’ BY AIRSPACE PROCEDURE Once someone has been deemed not a threat we give them personal, confidential, and unique way to identify themselves to the armed defenders; as well as to convey in-cockpit control; the objective being to keep our friends from getting shot down as they enter the Circle Of Doom (…at least usually).
3) KABLAAM! Anyone lacking clearance (in the military sense), and thus lacking the means to identify (in the military sense), attempting to enter the Circle of Doom, from anywhere at anytime flying anything,
…Can expect to be blasted to little bits.
Well, first we chase them for a wee bit, to see how serious they really are,
…THEN we blast them to little bits.
You see; it’s really very simple.
Once various Feds finally figure this out, it becomes EXTREMELY
EFFECTIVE and EXTREMELY SIMPLE for everyone.
UNINTENDED ECONOMIC BENEFITS These measures
actually simplify the financial management of an airport: Any account at Potomac Airfield that goes 30
days overdue is subject to interdiction; any account over 60 days is simply
shot down.
Thus, should we ever have to fully enforce our lease, at
least there will be no witnesses.
POLICY WONKS, PAY ATTENTION! Any terrorist worth their salt can buy, rent,
steal or assemble about a bazillion small aircraft that can takeoff from
anywhere at anytime. Even simply
shooting all of your airport tenants, even tossing hand-grenades into every
aircraft, can have no affect over the bad guys.
It’s a total waste of time.
Unless you are equipped to shoot them down, the only
thing you can do to an airborne terrorist from the ground is to wave at them as
they fly by overhead. Aircraft
piloted by hostile pilots do not come from one of a few ‘airports,’ they come
from the sky.
SOMEBODY IS PEEING IN THE POOL! If you want to use ‘security’ to justify
having something to spend your surplus budgets on, or something new to
‘manage,’ converting a few irrelevant public-use airports into expensive,
techno-crazed gulags with staffing and appropriations, then go knock yourselves
out; just don’t kid yourself or anyone else that you’ve actually done
anything about ‘aviation security.’
IF YOU NEED TO DO ‘SOMETHING’ for fear of otherwise having
done ‘nothing,’ then I suggest looking to the minimum effective
example set here in Washington DC, and save your taxpayers a couple of million
bucks. But beware, real measures have
a real price to be paid, measured not in money but in Freedom. The bill for the first you can cover for
awhile, the second you will have to explain to history.
My purpose in undermining and exposing irrelevant
and ineffective measures is to reduce the debate to real analysis that
leaves you with real choices based on the real impacts of real security
measures, for nothing less can have any real effect, and other measures are
merely pretend.
If I were to allow expanding bureaucracy
without objective to be mistaken for security then I would be allowing
Government’s unguided random walk to incrementally undermine Freedom without
limit.
There it is.
Doing something real is easy.
Doing anything less is pointless.
Maybe now you are beginning to understand why the
Forces Of Darkness are reluctant to either lend credibility or assume
responsibility for the ineffective if not incredible security measures
of other agencies; at the top they know better.
It’s a funny, if not historical, juxtaposition, that the
Forces Of Darkness (at least their highest levels) have a deeper respect for
Freedom and curtailing needless government expansion than do the bureaucracies,
who are ill-equipped for this and simply do not know what else to do.
Ask yourself what keeps the bureaucracies from getting too crazy? Answer: They can’t get the Forces Of Darkness to approve their nuttiness.
…Checkmate.
Equally important, if you do not observe a Circle Of
Doom, then you should take that as a good indication that you are not a
target, and therefore any hare-brained less effective measures are neither
justified nor required.
The Circle Of Doom defines the limits of
Government security measures; thus beyond the Circle of Doom…“Get on
with your lives.”
MY CIRCLE OF DOOM At Potomac we’ve already got 300+ pilots cleared, and more every day; and we are having a fine old time. If you weenies in the ADIZ are scared, then the best way to avoid getting blasted to little bits is to get a hangar or tie-down at Potomac Airfield.
Yes, it IS all
just a big protection racket...
I encourage you apply for clearance to fly from Potomac, to become one that can proudly say,
I AM ONE OF THE FEW,
I AM ONE OF THE ODD,
I AM ONE OF THE CLEARED,
NO GUTS NO GLORY!
I FLY FROM POTOMAC AIRFIELD
LIVE NEXT TO POTOMAC AIRFIELD Many of the schnazzy new home sites next to Potomac have been bought by pilots. Cool, eh?
David Wartofsky - Potomac Airfield
(301) 248 5720 bigcheese@potomac-airfield.com
www.POTOMAC-AIRFIELD.COM